South Lanarkshire council leader Joe Fagan has welcomed the planned employment rights bill being introduced at Westminster and says its measures “will help build community wealth” in the area.
He says the local authority has already implemented some of the legislation’s planned measures including improved paternity benefits and a right to disconnect outside work for its employees, and hopes that the new legislation will benefit workers across a range of industries.
Councillor Fagan was speaking following the introduction of the employment bill at the UK parliament, which the government says aims to “help deliver economic security and growth to businesses, workers and communities across the UK”.
Its provisions include 28 different employment reforms ending “exploitative” zero-hours contracts plus fire and rehire, improving rights to paternity, parental and bereavement leave, and strengthening the provisions of statutory sick pay.
The council leader, who chairs the authority’s community wealth-building commission, says the proposals will support South Lanarkshire’s existing economic development plans and “help tackle recruitment challenges in the local labour market”.
He said: “There is a strong case that upgrading workers’ rights helps deliver security for working people and helps places like South Lanarkshire meet our community wealth-building ambitions – keeping more of the wealth we create locally in the hands of working people here.
“There are good reasons for the council to be positive about the government’s plans. It’s not just trade unions and the wider public who want working people to have more rights at work; the majority of managers and employers back reforms that respect workers for their contribution and improve productivity, recruitment and retention.
“My hope is that employers, trade unions and government work together in the months ahead to ensure that a bill is passed that helps us build wealth locally and delivers better outcomes for workers across South Lanarkshire’s public, private and independent sectors.”
Councillor Fagan says South Lanarkshire is “already ahead of the curve” following its own workplace policy updates introduced two years ago, saying: “We have delivered a new deal for our employees, including extending parental leave and creating a ‘right to switch off’ on a voluntary basis; in many ways, we have pre-empted elements of the new deal for working people.”
Executive committee members agreed a series of employment changes in September 2022 including increasing paid paternity leave to four weeks, introducing neonatal leave for parents of premature arrivals spending additional time in hospital, and signing up to the pregnancy loss pledge to support staff.
It also included a “right to disconnect” policy noting that remote work is “blurring the line between home and worklife in a way which is not conducive to good mental health and wellbeing” and clarifying: “Every employee is entitled to switch off outside their normal working hours and enjoy their free time away from work without being disturbed [including by] phone calls or emails”.
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